Calamity
by Something Illusory
Summary: *3x21 DE oneshot* But now she held onto her anchor, the only tranquility among the wild storm of what had just happened. Her eyes rolled to and forth, ready to pass out, but not before she felt his cool arms wrap around her and he whispered, "I'm here."


Tyler's arms gripped her gently all the while her body craved his attention. She needed to get out of this chair. It was a weight on her, the constant reminder that her blood had been taken from her and she was slowly being drained. Before she could process what had happened, a sharp pain hit her in the face and she was sent spiraling backward. Elena closed her eyes and with a great thud felt her head smash against the ground. All the light in her world went out drastically, the only thing to be seen were the insides of her closed eyelids. Laying against the step in which she had unfortunately crashed against, she struggled to open her eyes and peer to see what had happened to her.

It was only for seconds, but she could see that Damon and Stefan had their grip on somebody...who was that somebody?...right, Klaus...they had Klaus. With a groan her eyes rolled backward and she forced her head up. A loud roar buzzed in her ears and then, incredibly, she felt two hands brush against her shoulders. It was so light and sincere that she felt like she was imagining the gesture. Whoever it was must have noticed her feeble attempt to sit up for they pulled her softly toward them. Her hand reached up toward her temple - the main source of her sharp headache.

"Hey," they whispered. "You okay?"

She nodded, eyes fluttering open in attempt to identify whomever was helping her. It seemed silly, in a way, because she should have instantly recognized the voice. Their words had touched her ears softly but because of her pounding headache and the buzzing sound, they drowned it out just so she could feel even more confused as to what was going down.

This person was helping her to her feet and she could not help but stumble backward into them. Their hands were strong and steady and successfully her eyes fixed upon the scene in front of her. Stefan, Klaus, and Tyler...so it was Damon behind her, then. She swallowed thickly.

Damon was slowly guiding her toward the other side of the room and she let him, seeing as she was very unsure of where she was or even what she was doing. Was this a dream? Why was Klaus..why did he face look so...and Stefan...was Stefan okay? What was he _doing_?

Tyler laid Klaus's body onto the ground. Stefan turned toward them with cold eyes and addressed Damon. "You should get her home before the sun sets."

She? Were they talking about _her_?

Her eyes fixed upon Klaus's body but she could not process what she was seeing. Pale, stiff Klaus was on the floor and he looked anything but alive. He wasn't dead, though. Was he? How? Her fingers brushed up toward her temple, feeling the sharp sting of where she had fallen. Her headache was only getting worse.

Damon's cool fingertips touched her elbow and instinctively her hand grasped his. Her movements were slow and unsteady but he was patient with her. He could see it in her eyes that she was disoriented. He could hear her heartbeat beating slowly and roughly, a sign that she wasn't exactly in good condition. He was half-afraid to touch her in her fragile state but soon realized there was nothing he could do but guide her.

Only moments ago the darkness had crept over her and she felt herself trying to hold onto to something that wasn't there; something that her fingertips could touch and her tongue could taste but she could not bring herself to grasp and swallow it: life. Her blood passed quickly through the plastic tubes, each drop of the red liquid threatening to be her last.

But now she held onto her anchor, the only tranquility among the wild storm of what had just happened. Her eyes rolled to and forth, ready to pass out, but not before she felt his cool arms wrap around her and he whispered, "I'm here."

She nodded, feet dragging endlessly against the wooden floor of the house. If not for him she would have fallen again, and several times she stumbled backwards against him only for him to catch her with cat-like reflexes. She tried to mumble something to him - anything - but could not force out the words. Her only option was to let him take her away from reality and keep her safe. No thoughts. Not questions. Nothing except holding onto Damon as if her life depended upon him. And it did.

It was a short ride back to her house. Or maybe it wasn't but Elena would not really know for she managed to slip away into an unconscious state numerous times while riding in the passenger seat of Damon's car. He said nothing to her, only kept glancing at her out of the corner of his eye. His face portrayed extreme worry and anxiety. His ears remained alert and focused on her heartbeat as if he were afraid it would suddenly stop on him. Her labored breathing kept him thinking back to the time he last saw her like this: when Klaus had killed her in the sacrifice. Except then she truly was dead and there was no beautiful heart beating inside of her chest. It had been cold and gone. There are no adjectives to describe what he had been feeling that night whilst holding her in his arms protectively and seeing that blank, lifeless expression etched upon her face all the while believing she might come back as a vampire and hate him forever. However, if it means anything, what he had been feeling was closely related to what he was feeling now.

She snapped back to reality only a few seconds from the house and Damon let out a sigh of relief. She groaned, hand reaching up again to rub her temple. A slash of blood was left on her own hand. Elena suddenly felt sick, like she could never again look at her own blood. And to be honest she probably would never be able to without thinking about how many times it had been taken from her grossly.

When the car came to a stop she thrust the door open, but by the time her feet were ready to touch the ground Damon was already there, strong hands gripping her wrists. She leaned on him for support but felt like rejecting his action, positive she could make it into the house without passing out. "I'm okay." she whispered.

"I don't care." he replied gently, shutting the door behind her and keeping her at ease. She gave up then and let him herd her toward the house. To her dismay he stopped on the porch and looked at her warily. "Your heart sounds much better," he noted. "Alaric's stuck in the school until it gets dark. I need to head back and take care of Klaus's body."

She peeked up at him from beneath her lashes and swallowed the large knot in her throat. "Is he really dead, then?" she asked quietly.

"Klaus is gone for good." he informed sternly.

She looked into his eyes and realized that she did not want him to leave. Even though Klaus was dead and Alaric was not a threat to her due to the fact that their lives were connected - that, she remembered - she found herself gripping Damon's hand tightly. Her face crumbled and she held in a strong urge to cry. Where did everything go wrong? She still felt so wild, caught in the uproar of possible death and loss, that leaving her anchor would break her. If he left she was sure she would die from the overwhelming sensation tonight had given her. Caroline's screams. Alaric's brutality. The act of her cutting her own throat which, by the way, still burned intensely. Her blood being drained...watching it flow through the plastic tubes and into the bags..Klaus's death. His body, cold, laying on the ground.

"Don't go." she choked out before her mind could wrap around what she was saying.

He felt so...in love. Seeing the tears form in her eyes was heartbreaking. It was enough to awake something inside of him; something that told him that he couldn't bear the thought of leaving her. Even if his duty was to help his brother. Even if he needed to get Klaus's body somewhere. Even if Alaric was a tiger on the prowl, ready to pounce, he wanted nothing more than to wrap Elena in his arms and protect her. The wounds on her body were nothing more than wounds of his own. Everything that caused her pain had too caused him pain. His face softened and he nodded ever so slightly.

"Just stay, okay? Just please..." she breathed now, sobbing. "Damon, I'm so confused. I don't know what to do. Just don't leave me alone. You can't leave me alone."

He reached up and cupped her cheek, wiping the tears away with the pad of his thumb. "I won't leave you. Come on," he suggested, wrapping a secure arm around her tiny waist. "Let's get you inside and cleaned up." Still unsure whether or not she was stable or whether to pass out, he kept a close distance to her. When Elena skeptically came to the stairs inside and eyed them annoyingly, fearing she couldn't manage even a step, Damon cradled her in his arms by surprise. She relaxed her muscles, her everything, and melted into him. Her eyes immediately closed by no fault of her own and her headache, with had been excruciating before, seemed to have begun to dull. She was utterly aware of him placing her gently down on her soft bed, even going so far as to lay her head down like one would to a newborn baby. Her eyes fluttered open to catch sight of his face, broken, staring at her. He blinked softly, brushing a strand of hair back. "I'll be right back."

She did not say anything but merely closed her eyes and drifted off to a place where she could go numb. Damon himself was her own personal pain reliever, but she needed something physical. Her neck burned and her temple stung and her headache, though better, still remained. He returned shortly with a warm washcloth and tiny red pills. Three of them, to be exact. She couldn't even focus on anything before Damon started wiping away the blood on her neck and forehead. He even managed to wipe the stain that was on her hand.

Inside, she thought about what Klaus has said. How she had managed to rip apart the infamous Salvatore brother bond. How she destroyed them and would destroy them with something so simple as a mere choice. Oh, but how could she choose? She started crying again and Damon immediately reached for her. "Elena?"

"I'm sorry." she whispered, voice hoarse and shallow. "I'm so sorry."

"What?"

"I know this isn't fair to you. You shouldn't... have to do this. Have to take care of me like this when I know it's killing you. Both of you."

He frowned. Was she going insane? "Hey," he whispered. "stop crying."

"I can't!" she mumbled, hands reaching up to wipe her eyes. "I know it seems like I'm stringing you and Stefan along but there's nothing I can do about it."

At her words, Damon's eyes hardened over. He quickly pulled her into a full embrace and then switched his position, now having her tucked against him while he lay on her bed. "Elena.." he soothed.

In the crook of his neck, she continued to cry. But be as it may she did not speak again until her tears had dried and she was still again, her head still resting against him. Her head pounded intensely. "If I choose one I lose the other." she said suddenly.

His jaw tightened and he closed his eyes.

"Klaus asked me tonight who I'd choose. I...he said killing me was a favor. But he wanted to know who I would choose and I just..I couldn't stop thinking about it. I never stopped thinking about it. I think about it over and over and over-"

"Elena," Damon cut her off. "You don't have to tell me. Just stop."

"No," she insisted lightly. "I do have to tell you. Damon, I've lost one of you before. I lost Stefan. When he gave himself over to Klaus there was nothing to him. He wasn't mine. He didn't belong to me. He belonged to Klaus. And...he belonged to blood. For that whole summer all I wanted to do was desperately get him back. Just get him back to Mystic Falls and he'd be okay again. But Damon...he wasn't okay. And then he told me, made me believe, that he didn't want me anymore. That he didn't even _want_ to be with me anymore." she seemed to be lost in a world of her own but Damon did not exactly notice. "You were there. You saw how...how heartbroken I was."

She was silent for several minutes (if you ask Damon, he'd say two) and then picked right back up where she left off, this time softer. "But I managed through it. I woke up and went along with my day and though I never stopped loving him there was a part of me that could look past Stefan. There were my friends. My family. And more importantly...there was you." She propped herself up on her elbow weakly and looked him in the eyes. She lost herself among his blue gaze and found herself continuing without thinking about it. "But then I put myself in the opposite position. I think..what if it was you that Klaus had. And you and I were in love like Stefan and I? Would I ever truly move past you like I did with him?" she murmured. Damon's heart beat loudly under his chest. For a minute he thought it might explode. "I..I don't think I would have. Damon...losing you would not be something I could handle. Not then. Not now. ...Not ever."

He felt like kissing her, or touching her, or do anything...but he could do nothing but stare at her and try to comprehend what she was saying. It wasn't clicking. Was she_ choosing_ him? What was she _saying_?

She continued whispering and reached up to place a warm hand against the flesh of his neck. "Stefan told me that it's all his fault. That the reason I...I mean..the reason something happened between us was because he left with Klaus. But that wasn't the reason. I don't know how it happened, or when it did, exactly...but I think I would have fallen for you anyway."

Her words were so genuine, so sincere, that he briefly considered the fact that he _did_ die and he never woke up on the hallway floor of the high school. Was this heaven?

Or maybe it was hell. His own personal hell.

She quickly tucked her head back against him and closed her eyes, a hot feeling coming over her cheeks. Blush. "I just wanted you to know that. That losing you wouldn't be something I could take lightly... and I don't know what I choose or what I feel. All I know is that I want you here. So just...stay. Stay here."

He broke.

He wrapped his arms around her and leaned down to press his lips against the crown of her head. "I'm here." he whispered.


End file.
